Former NFL running back Jamal Lewis has acknowledged working with Anthony Galea, the Canadian doctor charged with unlawfully treating NFL players with unapproved drugs including human growth hormone. But Lewis says Galea never gave him any illegal substances.
“I just think it was a bad deal, bad rap they were trying to give him,” Lewis told ESPN. “He’s a great guy. Good person. Humble person. Just would never do anything to hurt a person, period.”
Galea started working with Lewis early in his NFL career and continued working with him through the 2009 season. Lewis has not been charged with any wrongdoing, and he has not been identified as a suspect in the federal probe surrounding Galea.
And Lewis, the 2003 Associated Press Offensive Player of the Year, insists that working with Galea never included receiving performance-enhancing drugs.
“It is about being a superb athlete that is very in tune with your body, knowing the right people to go to and find,” Lewis said. “He is one out of how many other doctors that I have seen. I am just more in tune with my body. No steroids, no HGH, no off-brand chemicals in my body, none of that. I am just pure hard work. I am going to out-work you. That is it.”
Lewis hasn’t officially retired, but he says he is struggling with post-concussion syndrome and doesn’t expect to play again.